I’m officially writing in the mysterious book I call “S.” It’s unrelated to The Tomo Trilogy and Dreammare, believe it or not, but I love it all the same. Right now, I only have the first two chapters written, mainly because I’m still world-building, and I imagine this novel is going to take a LONG time. That being said, I drew the official “map” this week—a modern map and a historical one—so you might guess this is a fantasy book. It’s also a very musical book, especially in regards to the protagonist, so I held a little dance party with her this week. She rejoiced. (And we argued about Elvis…Something we disagreed on severely. I mean…he’s my hero. My HERO. And she hated him. #Fail)

I can officially add “had a dance party by myself to see if a character likes that music” to my list of weird things I’ve done for a book.

My monthly newsletter went out this week! There are a million ways to win prizes—including signed paperbacks of Bad Bloods—so check out the newsletter by clicking here. I’m looking for bloggers to help with release day! So, let me know if you’re interested at shannonathompson@aol.com. (Also, if you want to review Bad Bloods on your book blog, feel free to mention it!)

Babbling Books Bookstagram

Specials thanks goes out to my latest reviewers. What did they think of Bad Bloods: November Rain? “Fresh and alluring. November Rain is an amazing treat. I loved it and can’t wait to be an avid fan of the series. The series is definitely going to be worth drooling over.” – Read, Watch, and Think

“A fast paced fantasy and sci-fi story full of exciting characters with their own fascinating abilities and background stories. Didn’t disappoint one bit! For fans of Red Queen and Shatter Me: this one is definitely something you should check out!” – Book Prints

Book Prints and Babbling Books also shared photos on Instagram! So, check them out. Babbling Books review of November Rain said, “I’m looking forward to delving into the next book to see what unfolds for the characters as I get deeper into the story.”

Other news? There’s a new Goodreads Giveaway going on for November Rain! Enter below.

Clean Teen Publishing is also throwing a Facebook party on July 8 from 6-8 PM (EST), where—you guessed it—there will be MORE prizes. Click here to join.

CTP’s Sizzling Summer Reads FB Party

This week’s Teaser Tuesday is honestly my favorite one, so I hope you enjoyed it. If you didn’t see it, check out my right side tool bar. Why is this my favorite one? Well, other than me being a sucker for love, Bad Bloods takes place in one month, so a lack of time is a huge factor in all of my characters’ lives. I feel like this line encompasses all of the feelings between the characters, down to the impending doom to the hope they have for their future. I hope you’ll fall in love with Serena and Daniel as much as I did.

The #1lineWed theme was “line” so here is your weekly preview:

Her words urged me to forget the line I normally drew between strangers and myself. #1lineWed#BadBloods

I finished Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee this week, and let me tell you, it’s perfection. Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee is brilliant, terrifying, unifying, and brave. If you aren’t familiar with this novel, Outrun the Moon is about a very intelligent young woman from Chinatown in San Francisco following her studious, entrepreneurial dreams in 1906. This means the story takes place during the historic earthquake, and the disaster definitely changes everything and everyone. If you’re looking for a culturally rich and historically moving piece, this book is for you. Read my full five-star review here. Favorite Quote: “When a law isn’t just, I believe it’s okay to disobey it. In fact, I believe we are morally obligated to disobey it.”

I saw The Lobster, which is an independent British film set in the near dystopian future where single people are forced to fall in love in 45 days or turn into an animal of their choosing. It’s being marketed as a dark comedy, which is…sort of…accurate? I laughed. But I have a really twisted sense of humor, and I’m 99% sure most viewers who like the word “comedy” would not see this as a comedy (especially American viewers). It’s very dark and dry. It’s super twisted. It’s very in-your-face about the patriarchal expectations of dating (and being single) in modern society. And there’s one particular post-violent scene that even made me cringe (and I don’t normally cringe…but I LOVE animals). I’m not sure who I would recommend this to. It’s just one of those films you have to see for yourself. The acting was brilliant. The script, insane. The music, fitting (often in an awkward, lovable way). Colin Farrell was a genius, and I think my favorite part was the scene between the two best friends and the monologue about prom and all that. Hilarious! Oh, and the camel walking through the forest. Oh, and…okay…so maybe I liked this movie more than I thought. I also took a “Which animal would you be alone?” personality quiz, and I was a SWAN. A SWAN. Which, btw, means I would die if my partner dies. (Told you this movie was dark.) Check it out, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!

I also checked out the pilot episode for The Last Tycoon, because of Lily Collins. I’m a bit obsessed with her. I thought it was great. If you like that Great Gatsby era, you’ll enjoy the show. (Be sure to vote via Amazon Prime, too!) I also died during the finale of Penny Dreadful. I mean….WHAT. WHAAAAAAT the hell was that? No spoilers. But I wasn’t very satisfied. In fact, I was pretty put off. I think they let Vanessa’s character get dragged down by men too much in the end (rather than her strength found in the concentration of her faith, which is what I think they were going for). But, honestly, it ended up coming across as “women are sin and evil, no matter how hard they try to be good.” Also, considering the new characters introduced (who had little to no arc, but were freakin’ awesome), it felt very abrupt for an ultimate ending. But I still love that show and recommend it. Everyone I know who watches it loved the ending. Maybe I am just too in love to let it go. But while I liked the idea of the ending, it felt too rushed to be satisfying.

Spotlight is on Netflix, so I was finally able to see it, and it absolutely crushed me. For those of you unfamiliar with this Oscar-winning film, Spotlight is about reporters coming together to expose the church’s cover up over decades of molestation. Definitely not for the light-hearted, but it’s a brilliant film based on true events, and I highly recommend it.

Motto: Please do not annoy the writer. She may put you in a book and kill you.

(But, really, I might kill you in a book.)

What I’m Wearing:

I have a photo shoot coming up next week, so I’ve been trying to figure out what clothes should be in my next author photos. We shall see.

What I’m Wanting:

The Selection Series FINALLY got a new director, so I’m crossing my fingers that it works out this time (since it didn’t the last three times).

What I’m Dreaming Of:

So, I had magical powers, and I managed a magical fortress, but magic is super illegal, and I enjoyed shoving my successful magic endeavor into the government’s faces by hiring a social media manager to share all my awesome magic-ness online. (Guys, I’ve been working too hard.) Well, then, my social media manager was killed in a magic shootout—Okay. So I killed the social media manager out of anger. But still—and so, an apprentice of mine called a company to hire a new one, which of course tipped off the local police where we were hiding. (In a beautiful log cabin, by the way.) But I ran out to escape, and THERE WAS A DINOSAUR. (For those of you just reading my blog for the first time, I am LEGIT terrified of dinosaurs. Like, I have nightmares when I see Jurassic Park movie trailers. I blame my older brother for scarring me in the 90s.) But, yes, there was a T-Rex walking through the woods, trying to find me, that the government sent to keep me in place. And I stayed (because…dinosaur). In the end, they arrested me and all my magical criminal friends, and I woke up, kind of glad that the dream didn’t end with the T-Rex chomping my head off. (Because we all know that’s happened before.)

What Else Is Going On:

s’mores

So, I turned 25 on June 23, which means I’m officially a quarter of a century old. I celebrated by making s’mores in the middle of the night, and then working all day long. (Who gets to relax nowadays?) But really, it was a great birthday, and I really enjoyed hearing from so many of you. Thank you for being awesome. Here’s to the next 25 years.

As the year comes to an end, readers are looking forward to new releases in 2016…and authors are nervous about all the predictions coming out. (Come on, I know I’m not the only one.) I’ve already read a few myself—and they ALWAYS freak me out. So what better way to combat them than by joining in on the fun?

These are just my silly predictions for 2016. Basically, I’m just having fun! (And I hope you have fun too.) A slight disclaimer: if you’re an author, please don’t be discouraged if you don’t meet my “predictions.” I mean, I have two dystopian novels coming out in 2016, despite my predictions being against it, so trust me, I don’t think any sort of predictions should stop anyone from publishing what they’re publishing. In fact, I think predictions can be rather silly. Readers pick what’s hot and what’s not. Not publishers, not authors, not booksellers. Readers do.

This is just for fun.

Without further ado…

Alternate History: Personally—and I know I’m not of the popular opinion—I think 2016 will become the year of alternate history books. This sort of ties into other dimensions, which is the next sub-genre I want to discuss, but I’m seeing a huge growth in alternate history books stretching over numerous genres, which is why I think it’s so powerful. You can have an alternate history in sci-fi—think Man in the High Castle, which has just become an Amazon original (and is awesome by the way) about the Nazis winning WWII—and then think of steampunk or historical romance, where we have books like The Inventor’s Secret, in which the American Revolution never happened. Granted, these could just be “other dimensions,” but I had to separate them from the next topic, because these alternate history tales aren’t always explained by alternate dimensions; they simply can just be. If I had to get specific, I think this will get hugely popular around the fall season…or even move into 2017, especially if steampunk is involved. Either way, alternate history can thread itself into all genres seamlessly…including what I think will be the biggest trend: Other dimensions.

Dimensions:This is the MAIN one I see growing. Other dimension stories—like Trial by Fire or A Thousand Pieces of You—are continuing their trilogies, and from what I’ve noticed in the industry, when books get to their final pieces, that’s when the genre is at its hottest, so you might be looking at 2017, too. Ex. Winter in The Lunar Chronicles and Ensnared in Splintered—the last in their series—just released in the same year fairy tale retellings were HUGE. So, if your book includes other dimensions, readers might be fighting for it in 2016 and 2017. That being said, I HAVE to tackle fairy tale retellings…

Fairy tale retellings: Can we talk about this without someone getting upset with me? Many are claiming this is going to be the hottest genre in 2016, but I’ll tell you what…I’m a bit tired of them. I love them; please don’t get me wrong. In fact, I just finished Winterspell by Claire Legrand, and it was one of my favorite reads all year. (It’s a retelling of The Nutcracker.) I just think that I’m ready for something else, so this is probably biased, but I actually think readers are going to sway away from fairy tale retellings by the time we get halfway through 2016. I think 2015 was the year for fairy tales. I mean, I just went to the bookstore the other day, and EVERYTHING was a fairy tale retelling. There was a glass slipper or an apple on nearly every cover. It was exhausting. I like variety as much as the next person. So, while I love fairy tales—and I definitely think they are still going to do great—I don’t think they are going to be the star of the show like they were last year.

Here are five 2016 books I’m looking forward to that already have covers! (The cover for The Winner’s Kiss will now keep the original design for the hardback! So excited!)

In a quick sum up, I think aliens/galaxy novels are growing, especially at the beginning of the year with the release of The 5th Wavemovie (and the last book in the trilogy releasing, The Last Star). I also don’t think dystopian is going away at all, despite big publishers claiming they are, hence why Lionsgate is hoping to continue The Hunger Games franchise with prequels. (Here’s an article.) There’s still value in the genre—probably because of the state of the world—but I do see dystopian swinging more into books that combine dystopian elements with epic fantasy, meaning it’s an entirely new world separated from our world. Think of The Jewel by Amy Ewing (Her last book in this trilogy should release in 2016 as well). Basically, not “the US once existed, but now it doesn’t” dystopian, but rather “this is a brand-new world with dystopian governments doing terrible things.” This also means I’m seeing more epic fantasy in general. New world, new rules, new faces, new creatures, and of course, maps. So many more maps! Think of The Winner’s Trilogy by Marie Rutkoski. If you have a map in the front of your book, you’re doing 2016 right.

And finally…covers: I can’t talk about books without talking about book covers. From what I can tell, fancy fonts and symbolism is the “in” thing, especially feathers. Has anyone else noticed that? Feathers are freakin’ everywhere. Girls in dresses are somehow staying popular, and despite the overload of them, I think they’re here to stay. People love them too much. (I mean, they are gorgeous, aren’t they?) I have a hate-love relationship with them myself. But—yes—I think 2016 will be the year of symbols on the cover rather than people. That and hand-painted designs. Anything with special graphics, unique fonts, and/or strange artwork will be grabbed off shelves for their looks.

It’s official! There will be a Bad Bloods cover reveal for BOTH books on January 6. I will send out a newsletter December 29, asking for help, and three ofyou will win an exclusive sneak peek of November Rain!

If you want to be a part of it, sign up for my newsletter here. (No purchase necessary, your information will never be given away, and you can unsubscribe at any time. I only send out one email per month, if that.)

Quick shout-out to my lovely publisher, Clean Teen Publishing. These hard-working ladies crafted the most thoughtful gifts for the CTP authors this holiday season. They made this ‘S’ out of excerpts from The Timely Death Trilogy! How neat is that?

Fun fact: I used to wear fake glasses when I did my homework. Helped me concentrate.

::Shannon walking up to microphone stand:: Hey, everyone! Shannon here (just for a minute.) If you’ve followed me for a while, you probably have heard me talk about how much I strain my eyes by constantly staring at my computer. That’s when I force myself to take a break. However, a lot of writers (and people, in general) wear glasses to help themselves see, so when GlassesonWeb.com offered a guest post explaining what they have available for writers, I was on board! Today’s post is all about your eyes: ::Shannon leaving microphone stand::

…

5 tips on how to pick the right eyewear (especially if you’re a writer!)

Most people who spend a lot of time in front of the computer, writing, or even reading, will have a need for eyeglasses in the course of their lives. But it’s important to make an informed decision before purchasing. Just like you don’t write about a historical event without doing some research first, we advise you not to buy your eyewear before reading these five considerations:

Doctor’s advice. Get an eye exam before everything else, in order to get an accurate prescription. You should get one every few years, and adjust your glasses accordingly. Do not buy your glasses from the drugstore, but have them custom made for you at reputable optician.

Your facial features. In order to find the best glasses out there, you should first consider your own face. The three basic rules here are: repeat your best feature (e.g. blue frames for blue eyes); contrast in shapes (e.g. rectangular frames for round faces); and scale (e.g. small glasses on a small face).

Your personality. If you want to appear business-oriented, go for classic frames (e.g. oval, rectangular) and colors (e.g. black, brown). To show off your creative side, go for trendy frames (e.g. cat eye, printed, colorful). Remember that first impressions are key, and that glasses are one of the first things people notice when they meet someone. Be sure to find a pair that suits your style by clicking here.

Try them on. Don’t buy frames without trying them on, even if it’s just virtually. Many online shops now offer the possibility of a “virtual fitting room” where you can see how certain styles look on your face. If going in a brick and mortar store, bring a friend with you for advice. When looking in the mirror without prescriptions, you might not be very objective because of all the blur.

Stay on budget. Just because there are other features available, doesn’t mean you need them. An anti-reflective coating might be enough for everyday use, while lenses that change color according to the light may be unnecessary. You are the one who knows best, but don’t just get extra options because the seller offer them.

This guest post was written by Daria P. who also contributes for GlassesOnWeb.com and CelebritySunglassesWatcher.com; she also runs her own fashion blog called Kittenhood.

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Shannon again. Isn’t staying healthy important? Picking the right glasses is one of those moments that can make a huge difference in your life–and your writing career–because the right glasses will help you the most. Jonathon Stone, a character from Minutes Before Sunset, would approve of this post. So, for fun, I decided to create cartoon versions of his human side and his shade side–Jonathon Stone and Pierce. His picture will end the post 😀 Have a great day!

From the beginning, Fish describes the sentence as a medium (like paint to the artist) and how writers need to love the sentence before they can master the sentence. When he states, “I belong to the tribe of sentences watchers” I fell in love. I thought his honesty was relatable, and his task was courageous. As many writers like to believe they understand everything there is to writing, especially after practicing for years, no one does, and I think Fish acknowledges this very respectively. He doesn’t act as if he knows everything; instead, he opens up to forms upon forms upon styles that can be reviewed and studied, torn apart and understood.

This was the copy I bought, but it’s often red and hardcover now.

I really liked this, BECAUSE of his simplicity. I think, at least for me, I often get caught up in the complexity of language (meaning I’ve surpassed the basics, but I sometimes lose myself on complicating things too much.) Like an abstract artist, I may lose concentration on the overall piece, and Fish really grips reality when he discusses the relationships from word to word, sentence to sentence.

“This is what language does: organize the world into manageable, and in some sense artificial, units that can then be inhabited and manipulated.”

I really encourage others (and myself) to often return to the basics, because that is our foundation, and we need a strong foundation if we’re going to keep building up. You cannot neglect the support when it begins to topple. In other words, you cannot forget your basic structures, even if you’re working within complex ones.

On top of that, if you’re looking for some quick writing tips, Fish discusses first and last sentences towards the back of the book, and I think his insights are very useful.

So..if you’re in the bookstore, and you’re looking for a quick read to help improve writing, take a step backwards and relearn where you came from in the first place.

It will surely strike up that passion of our original love for our medium: the sentence,

As I moved the past few days, I got to reorganize and rediscover all of my old trinkets (or junk.)

Surprisingly, I had a lot of fun. I thought a lot about what my characters would find while moving, and I think that’s a great writing prompt to mess around with (I sure tried it out.) My favorite part, however, was recreating my writing space–clearing my desk before covering it all over again.

Interestingly enough, not much changed about my setup. The same objects were there, but they switched around (And that does help–believe it or not.) While doing this, I thought I’d share my work space, so you can see what keeps me ticking or even compare it to your own.

I ALWAYS have my coffee (in fact, I spilt it all over my desk five minutes after taking this picture) and my basket of pens on the right. Behind that, you’ll see the boat frame. The picture is of my late mother. The statue on the left is a Demdaco Mother-Daughter statue I received at her funeral. I like to keep them close, because they push me forward. At the top of my desk, I have a photo of my brother and father, because they also inspire me to do my best. They remind me why I’m passionate.

Everything else included from left to right: Dictionary, Encyclopedia, camera, flowers, book statue, more pens (because you can never have too many), iPod, stapler, notebooks, November Snow, Chapstick, gum, candles, nail polish, tacks, printer ink, and my outside computer drive (Something all writers should have.)

What do you have on your desk? How does it keep you writing and dreaming? Does anything distract you? When do you spend your time there? Where’s your writing space?

Think about how you could improve your writing space (or how you’ve already improved it.) I’d love to hear what your writing space is like as we can all learn from one another.

My older brother, Greg, proposed to his girlfriend, and now I have a future sister-in-law to welcome.

My older brother, Greg, is dressed like Santa, and, his fiance, Chelsey, sits on his lap.Welcome to the family

I’m very happy, and I hope that everyone’s holiday has gone as wonderfully as it can.

Also, my father bought DragonSpeak for me. It’s a voice recognition software that types as I talk (since I do both WAY too much.) I’m looking forward to using it, both as a student and an author, so I’ll let you all know how I like it once I get a chance to get used to it.

Have any of you used it before?

I’m starting my Christmas off with waffles and mimosas with the family, ending it with more food, drinks, and lots of love.